Politics

Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. It's an ancient question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down? This controversy has been flaring up — sometimes literally, in the form of book burnings — ever since Plato tried to ban fiction from his ideal republic.

They are some of the best known, highly paid people in the country, whose opinions are documented continuously by the press and consumed ravenously by the public. But unlike others with similar wealth and influence, professional athletes seldom venture into politics, generally keeping their views and money on the sidelines this election season. In Boston, only one of 188 players listed on the rosters of the Red Sox , Patriots , Bruins, and Celtics has made a political donation during the current presidential election cycle.

When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments. "There's no doubt that there's been a big diminution of support for the president," said William M. Daley, Obama's former chief of staff and a former top JPMorgan Chase executive. "People in the financial services sector are saying, ‘The president has been too tough on us, both in policy and on...

Try as I might to leave this Liberty Mutual lunacy behind - the $50 million annual pay packages , the fleet of five corporate jets , the rampant conflicts on the board of directors, the $4.5 million renovation to the chief executive's suite - someone keeps drawing me back, and that someone is Deval Patrick. I can't get a remark of the governor's out of my head. The Globe had revealed that recently retired chief executive Ted Kelly made nearly $200 million over the past four years, that company planes constantly flew to airports near Kelly's vacation homes, and that the top nine...

Bain Capital is about to move into five floors in the middle of one of Boston's most prominent addresses, the John Hancock Tower. That said, the venture capital company prefers to maintain a low profile, an aim all the more challenging as its employees increasingly engage in the very high-profile world of politics. And now, with cofounder Mitt Romney once again campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, this time as the front-runner, the scrutiny is intensifying.

There’s a curious through-the-looking-glass moment early on in Oliver Stone’s “South of the Border,’’ his documentary that aims to right what he sees are the wrong ways South America’s politics and its leaders have been portrayed in the US media. Stone gives us a clip of fellow polemical filmmaker Michael Moore. Interviewed on CNN, Moore berates Wolf Blitzer for his network, and other news outlets, not asking tough enough questions of the Bush administration leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

WILLIAMSTOWN — One of the great, enduring ’60s political slogans, “Black is beautiful’’ confronted centuries of dismissal of African-Americans (Africans, too) as ugly, inferior, and intrinsically other. It was also a statement of the aesthetic obvious. “Posing Beauty in African American Culture,’’ a proudly sprawling exhibition which runs at the Williams College Museum of Art through Nov. 21, takes in politics, fashion, celebrity, sociology, and much else besides.

At what point does Deval Patrick stop being an oddly indifferent observer to the ethical meltdown at the core of his administration and start being a critical contributor to it? Answer: That point has almost certainly passed. This is the governor who promised to change the way business is done in the State House, to transform the culture of insidious favors for the powerful few. "If you want the same old, same old, the politics of money and connections, I'm not your guy," he said in 2006.

CAMBRIDGE - Arthur Nauzyciel's "Julius Caesar" at the American Repertory Theatre is visually stunning, musically moody, and unceasingly stylish. What it isn't, particularly, is William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar. " Sometimes that doesn't much matter, because the atmosphere this young French director creates is so hypnotically seductive that we find ourselves drawn into his dream of Caesar instead of wondering what happened to Will's. Nauzyciel's approach, which bears the strong imprint of his training in visual arts and film as well as theater, verges on the operatic - not so much because of the...

Spanish actress and director Iciar Bollain’s “Even the Rain’’ jumps to an auspicious start: a shot of a giant cross dangling from a helicopter. This homage to an iconic image from Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita’’ is an early tip that this film is an ambitious mix of politics, religion, art, and human drama. Gael García Bernal plays Sebastian, an earnest film director who arrives with his crew in Bolivia in 2000 to shoot an epic about Columbus’s conquest of the New World.

This week's landmark presidential election should end six decades of effective military rule in Egypt, but it remains unclear how much authority the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak will cede to the elected leader. One thing is certain, though: the generals want no interference with their budget, their economic empire or promotions. The main question is whether a military that has grown accustomed to virtually unchallenged domination over the past six decades will be willing to quietly give it all up, or know how to deal with a civilian president if one is elected.

State of the Union. Topics: 2012 politics; jobs and the economy; NATO summit and Afghanistan. Guests: Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman; Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; David Axelrod, strategist for the Obama reelection campaign; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO secretary general. 9 a.m. and noon. (CNN) Fox News Sunday. Topics: 2012 campaign; the economy. Guests: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

LOS ANGELES — Nadine Labaki uses the word "naive" a lot. As in "Maybe that's naive," or "I might be naive but . . . " Which she is and isn't, considering that she grew up in war-torn Lebanon and is now gaining international acclaim as a director. What Labaki refers to as naivete is actually an unironic optimism unusual in Los Angeles, or the movie industry at all. But Labaki, whose sophomore directorial effort, "Where Do We Go Now?," opens Friday, has so far had the sort of fortune that lets her live in a world where anything is possible, even peace in the...

News flash: The next president of the United States, like the last 29, will be a Republican or a Democrat. That's not news, you say? But surely it must be. Haven't we been hearing for months that the post-partisan hour was finally at hand? Weren't legions of Americans said to be ready to turn their backs on the old two-party system, with all its divisiveness and ideological rigidity? Haven't tens of millions of dollars been donated to Americans Elect , the widely praised anti-special-interest reform group intent on anointing a genuinely bipartisan ticket — a presidential candidate...

Like many Greeks left unemployed by their country's economic tailspin, Dimitris Spachos finds it easier to talk about his nation's problems than his own. Enormous debt accumulated over decades sent the country into a recession so deep it kills 200 businesses and 900 jobs every day. Elections this month failed to produce a government, and Greeks will vote again in June. Meanwhile, life for most Greeks continues to get worse. "Every day I see more people sleeping rough on the street," said Spachos, 72. "They can't even wash their clothes or themselves.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has close ties to a colleague accused of questionable financial dealings. The freshman senator from Florida once was enmeshed in a controversy over the use of the state party's credit card for his personal expenses. Rubio has faced increased scrutiny over his personal background since bursting onto the national scene, including conflicting details of his parents' immigration from Cuba and his ties to the Mormon faith. Will issues like those hold back one of the GOP's fastest-rising stars?

He's best known as the friendly face that launched a thousand microbrews. In his time he was an uncompromising agitator who headed every British short list of rebels to be hung. So why aren't there more books about Sam Adams? Ira Stoll tries to set things right by giving Boston's greatest patriot the treatment that has been lavished on Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, and his cousin, the other Adams, in recent years. There is certainly enough drama in the story. Riots in Boston, tough political choices, desperation in the Continental Congress and its army: Through it all, Sam Adams...

WHEN COMPLAINING about a five-year ban on legislators taking casino jobs (Page A1, Sept. 28), Senator Stephen Brewer, a Barre Democrat, said that a one-year ban was "the industry standard. " "The industry standard. " Doesn't that say it all? William Ira Bennett

Chaos in Greek politics and Spanish banking combined this week to underscore just how fragile Europe's economy remains after an eviscerating austerity regime that has spawned unemployment, desperation and misery. And there is no respite in sight, as Germany's finance minister predicted Friday that the crisis could last up to another two years. Wolfgang Shaeuble, who holds the region's purse strings, chastised the leaders of the world's biggest economies as they headed to Washington for a weekend summit for efforts at fixing the crisis over the past few years that "weren't good enough.

The early border skirmishes of Campaign 2012 are reviving questions about one candidate's former pastor and shining a spotlight on the other's high school hijinks. Can a fresh round of questions about President Barack Obama's birth certificate be far behind? In a campaign year when voters have declared the economy their top concern, Obama and Mitt Romney are on notice that there's no statute of limitations on the issues or conduct that might be used against them. And there's sure to be somebody with money or other means to insert even low-threshold...